Militias Block Medical Aid and Medicines From Entering Taiz

Yemenis shop at a market in the country's third-largest the city of Taez, on April 7, 2016.
A new ceasefire enters into effect in Yemen midnight on April 10, 2016, with the United Nations hoping it can be the cornerstone of a long-lasting peace deal at upcoming talks in Kuwait. / AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-BASHA

The situation of hospitals in Taiz has become grave as a result of the blockade of the province that continues to be imposed by the rebels. Yemen’s Minister of Local Administration and the Chairman of the Higher Committee for Relief Abdul-Raqib Saif Fath called on “The Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen and international humanitarian organisations to intervene immediately and put pressure on the Houthi militias and those loyal to Saleh to stop committing crimes against humanity”.

The minister also requested that “UN organisations carry out their humanitarian responsibility towards the residents of Taiz which has been besieged for more than a year and a half, and save the lives of more than 300 people who are suffering from kidney failure, more than 5000 people suffering from diabetes and 5000 cancer patients”.

According to Saba News Agency (SABA), Minister Abdul-Raqib Saif Fath stressed that the Houthi militias “are confiscating relief aid and are preventing the delivery of aid and medicines to hospitals in the city. They are also preventing organisations from providing the necessary aid to the people of the province. There are large amounts of medicines and equipment including 5276 hypodermic needles that have been seized, and the militias are blocking their entry into the province. Meanwhile, the militias have been seizing supplies of medicines from the Health Office in Al-Howban and have taken them to unknown locations. They are also blocking the entry of medicines for terminal illnesses and deadly diseases into the province.”